WESTLOCK – Property crimes in the Town of Westlock have skyrocketed between January and September 2022, while suspicious persons and vehicles are going unnoticed as fewer calls are being reported.
At the Oct. 24 Town of Westlock council meeting, Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird presented community crime stats for the first nine months and highlighted some notable variations in property crimes, persons crimes and overall Criminal Code matters.
Property crimes saw a 68 per cent jump increasing by 203 files over the same time period last year, with the biggest drivers being theft under $5,000 and mischief. Only one other year, 2019, had more files reported.
“When I look at all that compared to some of the drivers for higher numbers, I’ve always been a proponent of people calling in — reporting suspicious vehicles and suspicious property,” said Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Al Baird. “But if you look at our suspicious persons (and) vehicle report … it shows for January to September, 36 files only for a nine-month period. That’s the lowest in five years, so we’re not getting the calls.”
Persons crimes are also up by 16 files over the same nine months compared to last year, and is the highest it’s been in five years. Under ‘other’ and ‘total other’ Criminal Code, there were 118 files compared to 115 last year, while total Criminal Code shows an increase of 214 files from 519 to 733, representing a 41 per cent increase, the second highest behind 2019.
Baird pointed out a noticeable variance in the numbers for suspicious person, vehicle and property over the past two years. In 2020, those numbers hit 278 files while in 2021 there were 164 and this year during the same time period, there’s only been 36. “That’s a huge difference in call-ins,” he said. “Crimes are going up, but we don’t have that same reporting. We need people to continue to report those things.”
Baird said they’ll continue to look at what’s happening in the community and by who, while doing their best to monitor prolific offenders and work at preventing crimes, in addition to working with community groups to help get the word out.
“That’s some of the things we’re still continuing to do, it’s the same thing, it’s not really a big secret. We just need to watch out for each other is basically what it comes down to.”
